I never really thought much about the complexity of translation until my junior year of college when a writing professor, a Belarusian poet, brought in several different translations of the poem Ithaca by CP Cavafy to prove exactly this. Leafing through each version, which stressed different poetic devices and emphasized different themes and imagery, it became clear just how much power the translator had to shape another person’s innermost thoughts and feelings for a new audience of readers…. Read more.

I imagine that Vilnius is akin to what Berlin was like decades ago. Here in Lithuania’s capital, youngsters have adopted their own impeccable brand of edgy cool. And unlike in Germany’s capital (its world-renowned cousin), the underground culture really is underground…. Read more.

A country defined by its lakes and volcanoes, abuzz with rich coffee harvests and influenced by the traditions of its indigenous peoples, Nicaragua is the ideal location for travelers interested in ecotourism…. Read more.

Revered for its colonial architecture, its streets are lined with buildings distinguished from each other by their successive shades of pastel hues. Palms rise amidst a sea of red tile roofs against the backdrop of lake shores and volcanoes. There are baroque and Moorish aesthetic influences interspersed throughout the cityscape…. Read more.

Any savvy traveler will attest to the fact that integrating with the locals is the best way to immerse yourself in a new destination. This approach certainly isn’t only relevant while on a safari adventure in Kenya or a rainforest trek in Peru. When exploring Copenhagen, Scandinavia’s most stylish city, this same mindset applies…. Read more.

There’s no doubting that Venice is one of the most touristic cities in Europe. While the rest of the world regards Paris as the city of lovers, Parisians have reserved this title for Venice, meaning that it can be hard to escape the clichés that come along with it, especially in a city that’s hardly even inhabited by native Venetians…. Read more.

Over the course of the last few months, news of the Catalonian Independence movement has been elevated onto the international arena. Yet, the European Union has repeatedly dismissed it as an exclusively internal affair to be dealt with by the Spanish government. In today’s globalized world, however, the situation does not exist in a vacuum. In his article titled, “Catalonia: Past and Future,” Luke Stobart says, “In all, throughout Catalonia’s modern history a general pattern can be identified: rather than Catalan national consciousness being a constant — ever-seeking to create or develop a national polity — it is a more variable reaction to the political and social limitations of the Spanish national project.” One of the most significant external forces to have a hand in the latest wave of Catalonian independent struggle is that of neoliberal economic policy, which has taken hold in Europe and beyond over the past fifty years. The European Union To understand how these forces are at play in the situation, it is necessary to zoom out and examine the trajectory of the EU in the …

Over the past decade, Stil in Berlin has played an integral role in both documenting and influencing the cultural and gastronomical zeitgeists of Germany’s capital city. By extension, its founder, Mary Scherpe, has been an important figure in the public eye when it comes to filtering out the best that the city has to offer in terms of everything from fashion to food. Yet, something remains elusive and enigmatic about the woman behind the blog. Knowing her story and the values that ground her work breathes new life into each post on the widely read platform…. Read more.

Post-Truth: a Crisis of the Intellectual Bourgeoisie In November 2016, just days after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Oxford Dictionaries announced that its choice for Word of the Year was post-truth. There, it was defined as, “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion that appeals to emotion and personal belief”. Since the emergence of the term, there have already been numerous articles and even entire books written with sprawling commentary about why truth doesn’t seem to matter to people as it used to. Many of which are written by center-left intellectuals and journalists who lament the end of a time when fact was regarded with sanctity over opinion and veracity was revered. One of the central underpinnings to these analyses is the idea that the post-truthers helped to give rise to Trump, as sites like Breitbart and even the POTUS’s own words on Twitter have warped what is accepted into popular consciousness as valid grounds for basing our belief systems. The musings I’ve seen on the concept …